North American WCQ Top 64 Deck Breakdown

June 28th, 2015

After 12 long rounds of Swiss, 64 Duelists remain in the tournament. Nekroz was expected to be the dominating force among the popular strategies, while Burning Abyss, Qliphort, Shaddoll, Tellarknight, and even Ritual Beast were also expected to show up in varying numbers. Here is the breakdown:

Nekroz taking up the majority of the Top Cut is no surprise, taking up approximately 54% of the Field for the Single Elimination portion of the tournament. Burning Abyss has slowly been rising in popularity, and in second place at roughly 20% is a fairly strong showing given how little of it we saw prior to the 150th YCS. Qliphort has taken the third slot, showing how powerful cards like Lose 1 Turn are against a Field of Special Summon strategies, with about 11%. Ritual Beast was a big surprise at the 150th YCS, and while it was not a huge contender, tying for 4th place at approximately 5%. Shaddoll has actually been the strategy that has fallen the most, as it was expected to have a significant rise in strength with the release of El Shaddoll Anoyatyllis, sitting at roughly 5% as well. Tellarknight has not gained too much recently outside of Tellarknight Ptolemaeus and although it is very consistent, is not able to control the game as well as a strategy like Qliphort does because it cannot use Lose 1 Turn effectively, thus taking up only 3%. The most unique Deck to make the Top Cut was a lone HERO strategy which squeaked in at 9-3, but the power of Masked HERO Dark Law cannot be underestimated in a Field full of search effects and strategies relying heavily on the Graveyard.